The things you find whilst clearing out your garage.

Look what I found whilst clearing out my garage !



Seriously though, the buds are just starting to swell, so I moved this acer palmatum outside to get some light to the buds.
Apologies for the poor picture, the skyline is just above the fence (as you would expect) creating the glare.
I picked this tree up from Ken Leaver at Windybank Bonsai, it was imported in December 2007.
I'm going to be re-potting next weekend into a slightly larger cream oval by Walsall Ceramics, Peter Warren is coming down for a week of workshops with our club members, so I'll be relying on him to make sure the re-pot goes well.

Lovely tree John - please post again when its in full leaf
regards - Barrie

John

Have another look and see if you can find me one in your garage!!!!

Lovelly tree, it would be nice to see it in leaf later. As well as after you get it in it's new pot

Paul

Thanks for the compliments Barrie & Paul.

Here's a picture from either 2009 or 2010, (I was preparing the tree for displaying at the Don Valley bonsai traders association show) memory loss kicked in years ago.
I'll try to post a pic of the tree re-potted just as the leaves come out.....if I remember

Thats a lovely tree John, how long have you had it?
Mick

Thanks Mick,
The tree came into the UK in December 2007, I'd reserved it from pictures posted on Windybanks website.
I collected it from the nursery in January 2008, and we've been in love ever since then !

John that's a lovely story, many people are finding love on the internet more and more these days.
I have a tear in my eye.

Envy, Envy, envy!
Khaimraj

That is one more lovely tree!!! i too would love for you to find me one!! such great branching and base very nice take care john

Thanks for the comments guys,
I've just put the trees back in the garage as the temperature is dropping tonight with the possibility of frost.
I've been busy repotting today, 2 quince, a trident and a hawthorn, things are moving quickly now, I'm hoping we don't get a run of frosty nights.

what a great tree,if you just happen to find another hid away there is a guy here who would give a good home to it cheers steve

We did a tidy out of our garage today, having spent the week reroofing it after the damage caused by the gales of a few weeks ago. Funnily enough we didn't find anything remotely resembling that tree. All we got was a load of dust, two dead mice, several empty paint tins, the bicycle pump I lost last summer, half a pair of garden shears (a shear?) and, I kid you not, a pre-decimalisation penny.

Anything there that you'd care to swap for your tree?

Like Fiona, I've found lots of "interesting" things in my garage, but never anything like this! Maybe some day...

Chris

Fiona........ I swear to god the "alleged" incident with the bicycle pump was a complete misunderstanding and I've paid my debt to society.
Have you still got the dead mice ? my missus is making a curry tonight and they can sometimes be a little bland......

John Brocklehurst wrote: Fiona........ I swear to god the "alleged" incident with the bicycle pump was a complete misunderstanding and I've paid my debt to society.

Yes, I did think at the time the whole thing had been somewhat blown up out of proportion.

John Brocklehurst wrote:Have you still got the dead mice ? my missus is making a curry tonight and they can sometimes be a little bland......

They're on their way courtesy of Rentokil delivery division.

When can I expect my maple in return?

Thanks Fiona,
I'm sending the tree up with your auntie........Mapel

I've just moved the maple fully outdoors after its re-pot, the tree has responded very well and is throwing out extensions all over.
I'm very happy with the size of the new pot, I would have preferred an aged tokoname pot but this excellent Walsall Ceramics will do nicely, and will allow the root pad more breathing space.
The crown of the tree is too wide and will be reduced over the next couple of years.
At some point I'll also need to graft some more roots into the right hand side of the nebari to start filling the gap between the roots.

Stunning tree has all the necessary things going for it good nebari excellent taper and good ramification.

I was honoured to have 2 displays accepted for the 13th Noelanders Trophy this year.
The maple in this thread was one of my displays.

Here are a few pictures of my display.



Peter Snart the owner of Willowbog Bonsai Nursery very kindly lent me the table, for which I am eternally grateful



I went a little crazy with the lime sulphur trying to hide the scar (and others) on the front of the trunk where an old branch stub was removed last year...it's healing nicely but I had to try to hide it for the show......in an ideal world the tree shouldn't have been shown with the wound but it was and I enjoyed seeing the tree on display amongst some very fine bonsai.
There is still a lot of work to do on this tree, the nebari to the right hand side could be improved greatly and the finer ramification will come with time....if I continue to listen to Peter Warren who has helped me get the tree to this stage.



Moss work on the surface.

The accent planting used with the display.....don't ask.....I don't follow plant names, I have all on these days remembering to put my socks on !
Lovely little ji ita board it's sat on.....I wonder who made that ?

Ideally the accent should have been in a different coloured pot to the Maple, but I didn't have one to hand and didn't really want to disturb the planting this early in the year with frosts on the horizon.



Regards

John

hi,
lovely trunk and flare. Very nice and will only get better I think.
do you spray or paint the maple bark with diluted lime sulphur and how dilute to you go ?

For pictures against pale backgrounds one member of our club has a flash slave unit - it senses ther camera flash and triggers a second flash behind the tree. This gets rid of the second shadow of twigs that makes pictures look cluttered and blurred. Well worth getting as the pics look totally professional without the shadows.

cheers Marcus

Nice tree. I saw it in person on Noelanders
The accent plant looks like Gaultheria procumbens.

Tom, Marcus
Thank you very much for your comments and advice.

Marcus, this is the first year I've given my deciduous trees a winter wash with lime sulphur.
The wash was sprayed on with a 1 litre, manual pump up, hand held spray bottle.
The dilution used was 30 water to 1 lime sulphur although I've now been told I can do it at 20 to 1 next time.

The lime sulphur I used to "disguise" the scars was brushed on and was at a 5 to 1 dilution, I'd tried acrylic paint but just couldn't get it to look right.

Cheers

John

Thanks for that John,
I really like the pale bark appearance on maturing maples, I think i'll do my Beni Maiko now at 20:1 to get the great contrast when the leaves open bright red.

best wishes,

Marcus